National security controls on information and communication in Australia

National security controls on information and communication have been realized in Australia through various intelligence agencies and acts of the Parliament which, to varying degrees, restrict public access to documents regarded as essential to the “national interest.” This overview describes these entities and laws as well as the role of the Freedom of Information Act. It concludes that, in stark contrast to the United States, there has been a “freeing-up” of national security controls on information and communication in Australia in recent years.     

National security controls,information, and communication in the United States

National security controls on information and communication in the United States arise from a variegated body of Executive Branch measures, statutes, and court decisions, as well as shifting opinions concerning the application of such authorities. After a discussion of the current national security atmosphere in the country, a brief history of Federal controls will be followed by an in-depth presentation of the current framework of controls on information and communication. Lastly, this review concludes with a discussion of the major implications of current conditions upon constitutional rights and democratic values in the United States.     

Communication management in the public sector: Consequences for public communication about policy intentions

Public communication about policy intentions is important but delicate. Government officials are confronted with four main constraints typical of the public sector compared to the private sector: more complicated and unstable environment, additional legal and formal restrictions, more rigid procedures, and more diverse products and objectives. These constraints imply that ministers communicating about policy intentions face specific communication issues such as intensive political and media interferences, need for democratic communication, and more rigid timing and budget constraints.     

The ontological status of trust in information security

This article provides the rationale for the ontological status of trust in information security on the basis of the ontological, anthropological, methodological, axiological, and worldview aspects of the information-security concept and an interdisciplinary approach to trust.     

Compliance with freedom of information legislation by public bodies in South Africa

In South Africa, freedom of information (FOI) is entrenched in section 32 of the Constitution, which guarantees every citizen the right of access to any information held by the state or by any other person that is to be used for the protection or exercise of any right. The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) is the law that gives effect to section 32 of the Constitution. Regardless of a remarkable trend towards the adoption of FOI laws, international trends have shown this does not automatically translate into fulfilment of people's right to information. This study utilised mixed method research through the explanatory sequential design to assess compliance with FOI legislation by public bodies in South Africa, with a view to develop a model for implementation of FOI. The study first conducted a quantitative study by analysing the reports of the South African Human Rights Commission from the reporting years 2006/07 to 2016/07 to assess compliance with sections 14, 15, 16, 17 and 32 of the PAIA. Thereafter, a qualitative study through interviews with purposively chosen participants was conducted to substantiate the findings of a quantitative study. Key results suggest that over the years, there were problems in the implementation of the FOI legislation in South Africa and its use was limited. Where implementation has taken place, it has been partial and inconsistent. The responsibility for the implementation of FOI legislation in most public bodies is assigned to legal departments that do not have knowledge of what records are created, and where and how they are kept. With regard to compliance, in terms of the degree of comparison, the situation was better in national departments, worse in provincial departments and worst in municipalities. The study recommends the establishment of an information governance unit to implement FOI in public bodies. Failure to assign responsibility to a relevant unit would perpetuate the non-compliance with FOI legislation by public bodies in South Africa. A model for the implementation of PAIA within a public body is suggested.     

Principles for archival information services in the public domain

In 2010, in response to the Australian Government’s November 2009 apology to Forgotten Australians and former child migrants, a scoping study was undertaken by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) to assess the options for a national ‘Find and Connect’ service to allow people to locate and access relevant records and have recourse to support services. The scoping study noted that Pathways, a web-based public knowledge space and a product of the Victorian ‘Who Am I?’ research project, was a community-based information resource without equal in the out-of-home care sector in Australia or indeed internationally. The scoping team made the observation that Pathways, due to its quality of content and coherent structure, appeared to be based on a set of principles and wondered what they were. In response the research team set about articulating the principles that underpinned their approach to archival documentation and the use of digital technologies – principles that had emerged through more than two decades of public domain, archive-focussed projects. This paper presents those ten principles and discusses them within the context of Pathways and the ‘Who Am I?’ project. The principles played a key role in FaCHSIA adopting Pathways as the model for the national Find and Connect database and web resource, launched on 15 November 2011. The principles underpin community knowledge building in the fourth or pluralised dimension of the Records Continuum. The paper ultimately argues that all stakeholders (all people and organisations connected with records) should have the ability to contribute to the utilisation of those records through the improvement of documentation and that some archival systems do have a duty of care to ensure they can inter-operate with community-generated knowledge.     

深圳公立医院信息化建设及信息共享现状

抽样调查了深圳市、区级公立医院信息化建设和信息共享情况,总结了其成效和不足,提出了完善信息化建设、提高信息共事水平、实现区域医疗信息共享等建议,为深圳公立医院制订信息化发展规划及卫生信息政策提供参考。     

The results of priority research in the field of information security

The main factors that currently contribute to the increase of the vulnerability of computer information are considered. The dynamics of a number of promising scientific research areas in the field of information security (cryptography, computer steganography, and biometric information-protection systems) are analyzed based on Russian and foreign publications from VINITI databases over the past decade. The obtained data to a certain extent reflect the direction of the development of these research areas, which is defined by corresponding publication streams.     

Health information programming in public libraries: a content analysis

ABSTRACT

Health information programs, defined as library programs focusing on health-related topics, are an essential way for public libraries to reach out to their user communities, raising awareness of and interest in healthy lifestyle, promoting access to quality health information, and ultimately enhancing health literacy of the citizenry. This study presents a content analysis of the health information programs provided by a large urban public library system in the past year, seeking to strengthen the professional understanding of how public libraries can contribute to health literacy improvement through effective programming, and help other libraries gain insights on health information program planning and implementation.     

The history of public address in an age of information

This essay develops the thesis that to study public address in an age of information is to take into account (1) the mass and diversity of public communication events and (2) the dominant intellectual version of information in speech‐communication     

Efficiency gains in public service delivery through information technology in municipalities

According to public management theory and existing research on information technology (IT) value creation in the public sector, governments should actively strive to generate greater public value with IT, and the capability of public service delivery is at the center of this public value. In this study, we focus on efficiency gains in public service delivery through IT in municipal governments. First, we answer the research question: How much euro efficiency is gained in public service delivery by €1 increase in share of IT costs relative to total municipal costs? Second, we focus on contextual effects of these efficiency gains, by analyzing the effects of workforce mean age, workforce age dispersion and training costs. We use data from Dutch municipalities and study these efficiency gains in the period 2014–2018. Our empirical strategy encompasses a two-step procedure combining a stochastic frontier model and ordinary least squares models. Our analysis suggests that share of IT costs relative to total municipal costs (in short: share of IT costs) can explain efficiency in public service delivery by municipalities. Our results indicate that an increase of €1 in favour of share of IT costs leads to a net cost efficiency gain of €1.08. We also show that this effect in efficiency gains diminishes with a higher share of IT costs. Our results also show that workforce mean age, workforce age dispersion and training costs do not influence the relation between share of IT costs and efficiency.     

An attention-based view of AI assimilation in public sector organizations: The case of Saudi Arabia

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been suggested to have transformative potential for public sector organizations through enabling increased productivity and novel ways to deliver public services. In order to materialize the transformative potential of AI, public sector organizations need to successfully assimilate AI in their operational activities. However, AI assimilation in the public sector appears to be fragmented and lagging the private sector, and the phenomena has really limited attention from academic research community. To address this gap, we adopt the case study approach to explore three Saudi-Arabian public sector organizations and analyze the results using the attention-based view of the organization (ABV) as the theoretical lens. This study elucidates the challenges related AI assimilation in public sector in terms of how organizational attention is focused situated and distributed during the assimilation process. Five key challenges emerged from the cases studied, namely (i) misalignment between AI and management decision-making, (ii) tensions with linguistics and national culture, (iii) developing and implementing AI infrastructure, (iv) data integrity and sharing, and (v) ethical and governance concerns. The findings reveal a re-enforcing relationship between the situated attention and structural distribution of attention that can accelerate the successful assimilation of AI in public sector organizations.     

Postgraduate training in public health medicine: St George's Hospital Medical School Library public health information service

This article examines the development of the St George's Hospital Medical School Library public health information service. Begun in 1997 as a pilot project to support Public Health Specialist Registrars in South Thames West, it is now an established part of postgraduate training in the region. An outline of the service is described, including the evolution of the post of Public Health Librarian. Issues influencing the development of the service, and the establishment of the Librarian as part of the public health network are discussed. This is a transferable model of public health information provision, which as a centralized resource makes best use of available funding. As a LIS model it is an effective and efficient way of maximizing resources, and delivering a service to a specialist user group that is spread across a wide geographical area.     

The role of the information specialist in supporting knowledge transfer: a public health information case study

Objectives: To create research bulletins for public health professionals that support knowledge transfer and evidence‐based practice. Methods: The methodology for the bulletins comprises five stages: scoping the topic, searching for relevant literature, selecting and obtaining relevant articles, assessing the quality of articles including evidence grading, producing a comment on quality and implications for practice and writing the research bulletin. An ABC—applicability, brevity and clarity—is considered at each stage to ensure that bulletins meet the needs of their intended audience. Results: Nine research bulletins have been produced on a range of health promotion topics. Bulletins are distributed to Welsh health professionals and are available online. The bulletins have developed since their inception to incorporate evaluation and feedback. Most significant among these developments has been introduction of an Implications for Practice section to promote uptake of research. Conclusions: Research bulletins support busy health professionals in evidence‐based practice by assigning a level of evidence, highlighting implications for practice and providing a comment on quality. The bulletins further develop the extended role for information professionals in knowledge transfer and dissemination.     

信息无障碍理念在我国公益性信息服务业中的应用现状调查

本文采用文献调研、网络调查、田野调查等方法调查了我国各级政府、图书馆、第三方组织及相关企业在其提供公益性信息服务过程中应用信息无障碍理念的一些实际情况,并总结了8种具体模式及近50种子模式,并提出相关建议。     

信息市场化浪潮中的公共图书馆立场

公共图书馆是公共利益维护者。信息市场化对公共利益产生了挤压和侵害,对图书馆知识自由原则提出了挑战。因此,图书馆界应在理论和行动上予以坚决的回应。     

Online health information in South Korean public libraries: Developing evaluation criteria

Public librarians in South Korea assist users in obtaining information on a variety of topics. However, health-related information and services have a lower profile than other services due to a perceived lack of librarian expertise in searching and evaluating health resources. Although public library users are actively seeking health information, it has become critical for both public librarians and users to develop skills for using and evaluating Internet health resources. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify a set of useful criteria to evaluate online health web sites for both librarians and library users. From a comprehensive literature review, 33 criteria related to health website evaluation were identified. Using this set of criteria, South Korean public librarians and users were asked to rate the importance of each criterion in surveys. A strong consensus was found between the two groups. The top 10 most highly rated criteria from both groups were identified and compared. The results led to the development of an initial set of 12 evaluation criteria for health websites. It is expected that the final set of criteria will be used by public librarians to recommend the best health websites to their users. Although the study was conducted in South Korean public libraries, the findings are applicable in providing evaluation services of health websites to libraries worldwide.     

A power information user (PIU) model to promote information integration in Tennessee's public health community.

Observation and immersion in the user community are critical factors in designing and implementing informatics solutions; such practices ensure relevant interventions and promote user acceptance. Libraries can adapt these strategies to developing instruction and outreach. While needs assessment is typically a core facet of library instruction, sustained, iterative assessment underlying the development of user-centered instruction is key to integrating resource use into the workflow. This paper describes the Eskind Biomedical Library's (EBL's) recent work with the Tennessee public health community to articulate a training model centered around developing power information users (PIUs). PIUs are community-based individuals with an advanced understanding of information seeking and resource use and are committed to championing information integration. As model development was informed by observation of PIU workflow and information needs, it also allowed for informal testing of the applicability of assessment via domain immersion in library outreach. Though the number of PIUs involved in the project was small, evaluation indicated that the model was useful for promoting information use in PIU workgroups and that the concept of domain immersion was relevant to library-related projects. Moreover, EBL continues to employ principles of domain understanding inherent in the PIU model to develop further interventions for the public health community and library users.